2015 Valley Football All-Newcomer Team

by Missouri Valley Football Conference

Thursday, Dec 3, 2015 7:45 am

QB Aaron Bailey of UNI has been named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Newcomer of the Year, while DE Andrew Van Ginkel of South Dakota has earned MVFC Freshman of the Year honors. They head a list of 24 student-athletes named to the 2015 Missouri Valley Football Conference All-Newcomer Team. League coaches, sports information directors and a media panel selected the team.

  Notably, of the 24 players honored, 20 of them are freshmen or redshirt freshmen.

 For the fourth time in the past six years, the league Newcomer of the Year is a quarterback as UNI's Bailey takes the honor this year -- the last Panther to win the award was his teammate QB Sawyer Kollmorgen (in 2012). Including Saturday's playoff win against Eastern Illinois, Bailey has started 10 games and has a team-high 1,101 rush yards, second-best all-time in MVFC history for season rushing yards by a QB. His 17 rushing TDs is a UNI season record by a QB and ties Missouri State's DeAndre Smith (1990) for the MVFC record.

 For the first time since joining the league in 2012, a South Dakota student-athlete has earned Freshman of the Year honors as Andrew Van Ginkel earned the award this year. He's the second Coyote to win a major player award, joining Tyler Starr, who was Defensive Player of the Year in 2013. Van Ginkel finished the regular season ranked second in the MVFC in both sacks (9.0) and tackles-for-loss (18.0) and also finished as the team’s fifth-leading tackler with 56. He ranks second nationally with three fumble recoveries and also added two forced fumbles, blocked a kick, and had two breakups and six hurries.

OFFENSE Ht. Wt. Yr. Hometown (Previous Schools)

RB/RS Bruce Anderson, North Dakota State 5-11 202 Fr. Ruskin (Fla.) Newsome High
QB Aaron Bailey, UNI 6-2 226 Jr. Bolingbrook (Ill.) High / Univ. of Illinois
QB Taryn Christion, South Dakota State 6-2 205 Fr. Sioux Falls (S.D.) Roosevelt High
RB Michael Fredrick, South Dakota 5-10 165 Fr. Miami (Fla.) Champagnat Catholic High
RB Roland Genesy, Indiana State 6-1 225 Jr. Memphis (Tenn.) Millington Central High / Glendale College
RB/RS Daquan Isom, Southern Illinois 5-8 172 Fr. Orlando (Fla.) Dr. Phillips High
WR Jimmy Jones, Southern Illinois 5-9 179 Fr. St. Louis (Mo.) Hazelwood East High
PK Zak Kennedy, Youngstown State 6-0 160 Fr. Youngstown (Ohio) Cardinal Mooney High
QB Sean McGuire, Western Illinois 6-3 220 Fr. Franklin (Wis.) High
PK Cam Pedersen, North Dakota State 6-1 170 Fr. Eau Claire (Wis.) Regis High
WR Darrius Shepherd, North Dakota State 5-11 180 Fr. Blue Springs (Mo.) High
QB Easton Stick, North Dakota State 6-2 215 Fr. Omaha (Neb.) Creighton Prep High
OL Cal Twait, UNI 6-7 286 Fr. Manson (Iowa) Northwest Webster High

DEFENSE

FS LeRoy Alexander, Youngstown State 6-0 195 Jr. Toledo (Ohio) Whitmer High / Univ. of Nebraska
TE/DE Brannon Barry, Illinois State 6-4 210 Fr. St. Charles (Ill.) East High
S Jared Beshore, Missouri State 6-0 198 Fr. Lamar (Mo.) High
LB Armand Dellovade, Youngstown State 6-0 210 Fr. Imperial (Pa.) West Allegheny High
S Robbie Grimsley, North Dakota State 6-0 181 Fr. Hutchinson (Minn.) High
LB Katrell Moss, Indiana State 5-11 220 Fr. Indianapolis (Ind.) Warren Central High
DB Xavier Rowe, Western Illinois 6-0 190 Fr. Oak Park (Ill.) Oak Park-River Forest High
DB Timothy Smith, Western Illinois 6-1 195 Fr. Chicago (Ill.) Morgan Park High
DE Andrew Van Ginkel, South Dakota 6-4 230 Fr. Rock Valley (Iowa) High
CB Jefferson Vea, Southern Illinois 6-2 185 Fr. Mount Dara (Fla.) High
LB Lee Wright, Youngstown State 6-1 215 So. York (S.C.) High / Appalachian State

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